Cheered on by Carol McDonald from Planned Parenthood Federation of America, women rally on Capitol Hill in Washington to oppose legislation that would limit legal abortion. Photo: AP

Pregnant women in parts of Texas are turning to ‘Flea Market’ abortions due to hefty medical fees and an impending shutdown of clinics across the state.

According to a new Bloomberg report, open-air markets outside McAllen, Texas, 200 miles south of San Antonio are turning into booming black markets for illegal pills to terminate pregnancies. The pills are sold alongside usual flea market fare, but pose a potentially deadly risk to the young women taking them.

Drugs including Cytotec – or their generic equivalent – are regularly smuggled across the border from Mexico, where they are readily available without a prescription. Intended to prevent stomach ulcers, Cytotec, can also terminate a pregnancy but is easily misused causing excessive bleeding and other health issues. Four pills can run you $40 at the market while a pharmaceutical abortion at a clinic can cost upwards of $500.

“You’d be amazed at how many people, young people, are taking those pills,” Erlinda Dasquez, a 29-year-old mother who has taken the pills herself, told Bloomberg.

“I probably know 12 to 20 people who have done this. My cousin just went to the flea market a few months ago.”

And the illegal trade will likely increase as the Texas senate votes today to enact tough new abortion restrictions, which will likely shut most clinics across America’s second-most-populated state.

The Texas bill would require doctors to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals, allow abortions only in surgical centers, limit where and when women may take abortion-inducing pills, and ban abortions after 20 weeks. Only five out of 42 existing abortion clinics in Texas meet the requirements to be a surgical center, and clinic owners say they can’t afford to upgrade or relocate their facilities.

Doctors in the Lower Rio Grande Valley are seeing still-pregnant patients who have taken the pills come in and been bleeding for at least a month. Two clinics nearby will likely close under the new restrictions, closing off the option in an area where more than a third of the population lives in poverty.

A Pfizer spokesman said the company is working with law enforcement to prevent the illegal sale of Cytotec.